Sony Ericsson TM506 has hit the shelves of T-Mobile USA, coming as T-Mo's first 3G Swedish-Japanese handset. Although on the mobile operator's official website the phone is still "coming soon," users can find it in the carrier's stores from across the US as of now.

According to Tmonews, the TM506 costs $79.99 with a contract agreement for two years and after a $50 mail-in rebate. Moreover, the no-contract price of the phone is of only $159.99, which can surely make the TM506 a hit in terms of sales.

While its free of contract price is not too different from the one of a low-end phone, Sony Ericsson's TM506 is actually a mid-end handset. Coming in a clamshell form factor, the TM506 brings the following: tri-band GSM connectivity (850 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) with GPRS and EDGE, dual-band HSDPA connectivity (1700 / 2100 MHz) for data transfer speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps, a 2 inch TFT internal display with 240 x 320 pixels and 256K colors, a monochrome 36 x 128 pixel external screen, internal GPS and A-GPS, myFaves, NetFront browser, Instant Messaging, push email, Media player, FM radio with RDS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, a 2 Megapixel camera with video recording, 35MB of memory and support for Memory Stick Micro cards. 

Sony Ericsson TM506 weighs 3.4 ounces, measures 3.7 x 1.9 x 0.69 inches (when closed) and, according to T-Mobile, it packs a battery that can last up to 7 hours in talk-time mode or up to two weeks in stand-by mode.

The TM506 is said to come in several color versions, including amber, red and green, so T-Mobile customers will have the chance to pick up a color that they really like.

After the new Sony Ericsson, T-Mo will get ready to release other new and cool handsets, including Samsung T919 / Tocco and the long awaited HTC Dream / G1 – the very first mobile device to come with Google's open-source Android platform.